Nottinghamshire offers essential English history and one of the world's most enduring legends. In Nottinghamshire the magic of Robin Hood is never far away and the county is undoubtedly a rural and green destination. Nottinghamshire's countryside has been the inspiration for Lord Byron and D H Lawrence and Newstead Abbey, Byron's ancestral home, is a splendid memorial to the romantic poet. In stark contrast, Lawrence's birthplace in the mining town of Eastwood, is a tiny terraced house. Nottinghamshire once thrived on lace making and then on coal mining but in recent years many pits have been decommissioned. Now Nottinghamshire lists cereals, cattle, sheep, light engineering, footwear, limestone, ironstone and oil as it's main products.